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Track and Field: A champion once again

Cannon Falls' Emi Trost pulls away from the competition down the home stretch to win the Class 1A girls 3,200-meter run at the state track and field championship Friday at Hamline University in St. Paul. Trost won with a time of 10:56.30. (Republican Eagle photo by Joe Brown)

ST. PAUL – A state champion in track and in cross-country, a quadriceps injury was the only thing to slow Emi Trost down.

After suffering the leg injury during practice, according to head coach Brett Zimmerman, Trost has had trouble getting to top speed in her races and has been limited to competing in the 3,200-meter run.

“This was only my fifth race this season,” Trost said after competing in the Class 1A state 3,200 finals.

She continued, “The biggest challenge is that my mind wanted it and my body wanted to, but one part, one little muscle, was holding me back, and that was the frustrating part. I knew that I could do it if it wasn’t for that. I’ve never been injured before; I’ve been able to get through five years of running competitively without any injuries.”

The quad injury slowed down Trost during the season, but it was unable to stop the Cannon Falls senior as she won her second state track title by winning the 3,200 in 10 minutes, 56.30 seconds.

Keeping pace with Mayer Lutheran’s Hannah Truniger for the entire race, Trost made her pass with about 300 meters to go. Truniger finished second with a time of 11:06.53.

“I was going off my body at that point,” Trost said about making her final push. “When can I? How fast can I go? I thought about doing it earlier, but she stayed out there longer than I kind of expected based on her seed time.”

A shot at state looked iffy at times, but Trost persevered and the future Minnesota-Duluth Bulldog was thankful to make it back to state, let alone win another title.

“This is how I wanted to end my high-school career,” Trost said. “At the beginning of the season, I was preparing myself that it might not happen and I’d have to be OK with that. Just being able to be here for my last high-school race is cool.”

Z-M, Lake City

Out on the field, Zumbrota-Mazeppa thrower Maddie Lindhart brought home hardware in her first of two state events. Competing in the discus on Friday, Lindhart put up a throw of 118 feet, 3 inches in her first throw of the finals to finish in third place. Winning the discus was St. Clair’s Katelyn Weber with a throw of 126-1. Lindhart will compete in the shot put at 3:30 p.m. today.

Elsewhere on the track, two Lake City girls relay teams – the 4x200 and 4x400 – and the boys 4x100 relay teams qualified for today’s finals.

The 4x400 girls relay team of Morgan Dammann, Braeden McElmury, Madi Green and Bailey Cronin placed second in the prelims with a time of 4:03.30, while the 4x200 team of Shannon Ting, Brandy White, Cronin and McElmury will be seeded seventh after a time of 1:47.17.

The boys’ 4x100, with Matt Kjos, Edwin Vazquez, Elijah Hodgell and Elijah Kroll got the final spot in the finals, placing ninth in the prelims at 44.56.

Joe Brown is the sports editor for the Red Wing Republican Eagle. Previously, he worked at the Marshall Independent and the St. Cloud Times. For updates on local sports, follow Joe on Twitter at @RE_JBrown.